Bears take early leads, Sacramento State rallies late

Friday, March 26

Sacramento, Calif.

1:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

4-16, 0-1

Sacramento State

7-15, 1-0

Northern Colorado

Sacramento State

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

3/26/2021 7:10:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

UNC softball opened Big Sky play at Sacramento State Friday

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Big Sky play began on Friday for Northern Colorado as they visited Sacramento State for a three-game series. The Hornets took both games of Friday's doubleheader over UNC 7-2 and 5-4.

Northern Colorado scored first in both games but was unable to hold onto the early lead.

The Bears' bats came alive after recording just four hits in game one. The top of the order in Alyssa Wenzel, Mady Young and Paola Villegas combined for four of the team's nine hits in game two while Katie Simonsgaard and Maddee Blood-Smyth had two hits each.

Blood-Smyth got the scoring going for the Bears in game two with a solo home run to left field. Her first long ball of the year. UNC ended up scoring in the second, third and fourth inning.

The lead extended to 3-0 in the third inning. Young drove home Natalie Joyner with her double to the left center gap. She later came home to score when Alison Steinker reached on an error by Sacramento State's first baseman.

Wenzel made it a 4-0 lead with an RBI single in the fourth as starter Erin Caviness was cruising headed to the bottom of the inning. She had three strikeouts and allowed just two hits at that point.

The long ball ended up hurting Northern Colorado. Sacramento State had a pair of home runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut UNC's lead to 4-3. They took the lead in the sixth taking advantage of a UNC error to start the inning.

In game one, it was Villegas who doubled in the first that scored Wenzel to put the Bears up 1-0. Sacramento State claimed the lead in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs.

Northern Colorado tied the game in the fourth with a Joyner RBI single, but it didn't last long as Sac went back ahead in the bottom half of the inning. They added on insurance runs over the final innings including three in the seventh to earn the game one win.

Game Notes
- Mady Young had her fifth multi-hit game of the year when she went 2-4 with a run scored and RBI in game two. She ended up 2-7 for the day.
- Maddee Blood-Smyth and Katie Simonsgaard both had multiple hit games, each with two. Blood-Smyth was 2-3 with a home run leading to her run scored and RBI. Simonsgaard had a single and triple.
- Erin Caviness had another solid outing for UNC going 6.0 innings allowing five runs, only three earned on eight hits. She struck out three.

What's Ahead
The Bears and Hornets close out their Big Sky opening series on Saturday with a 1 pm first pitch.

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